


Shameless Self-Promotion

by Kasuchi



Category: Big Time Rush
Genre: Ensemble Cast, Family, Friendship, Gen, Inspired by Music
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-31
Updated: 2012-12-31
Packaged: 2017-11-23 01:26:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/616547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kasuchi/pseuds/Kasuchi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the lead-up to the second album, Gustavo and Kelly decide to have the boys do some viral marketing. By recording videos.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shameless Self-Promotion

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I swear this idea was mine before they _actually_ started doing something similar, with their UStream vids and stuff. Assume spoilers up to _Big Time Returns_ just to be safe. There's references to my other BTR fic, [**Discography**](http://archiveofourown.org/works/549728), but it's not necessary to read that for this fic.

**parents**

It started, as so many things did, with them just messing around. 

Logan had rediscovered the high-def Cartwheel Cam his mother had bought him last Christmas in one of their suitcases, so they had decided to record something, put it up on MyFaceTube, and thank their fans for their support. They pulled up chairs and sat in front of the homemade green screen -- fortunately, Katie knew how to work with chroma key -- and practiced once or twice, Kendall stopping and checking their pitches every now and again as he strummed the guitar he'd borrowed from Rocque Records. Carlos's voice is right for the lead, they decided, with James and Logan on the upper harmonies, and Kendall on the guitar and singing the lower harmony. 

The video of them recording "California Dreamin'" got way more hits than any of them imagined. At first, Gustavo was set to go apoplectic, until Kelly pointed out that this is an opportunity. 

"Think about it," she explained, hand smacking against her padfolio for emphasis. "They got a million views in a week, and their second album doesn't drop for another five months." She shifted her weight and settled her free hand on her hip, the other hand hanging at her side with the folder in it. She grinned. "This doesn't have to be the _only_ video they record." 

Gustavo stopped turning purple and, instead, turned thoughtful. "I do have all that sheet music," he mused aloud.

Kelly's grin widened, and the four of them suddenly felt apprehensive. "Exactly. And we'd always wanted to do something like this with Boys in the Attic..."

"But the licensing wouldn't go through," Gustavo pointed out.

"If we take off the ads on their page, it won't be a problem," she returned, practically bouncing up and down in her Christiana Lobotuns. 

Gustavo clapped his hands together. "Perfect!"

"Hey!" Kendall broke in, waving his arms. "Not to kill the mood, but English?" The four of them looked expectantly at Kelly and Gustavo. 

Kelly and Gustavo traded a look before responding in unison, "We know how you're going to promote your next album!"

**wind and fire players**

"This is all your fault," James stated even as he shuffled through the pages of the sheet music.

" _My_ fault?!" Logan sputtered. "How? How is this my fault?"

Katie, chewing on licorice while playing her Playtendo DP, answered. "Because you found the camera." She then immediately returned to button-mashing. 

Logan sputtered for another moment before drawing himself up. "Well, it was Carlos's idea to record a video."

"Well, Kendall said we should do the cover," Carlos cried, firmly passing the buck. 

Kendall resisted rolling his eyes. Barely. "Look, it doesn't matter whose fault it is. The fact is, we have a promotion campaign...thing...we have to do now. Let's just try and have fun with it, okay?"

James sighed. "I guess it's still performing." He beamed, looking somewhat sheepish. "I actually really like these songs." 

Kendall flipped through the sheet music and realized they were doing a medley of two older songs. "Rollercoaster of Love and...September?" 

Logan hummed under his breath for a minute before beaming, dimples distinct in his cheeks. "My mom loves this song!" 

Kendall shook his head, hiding a smile. "Whatever, guys." 

They were on their second run-through of the song when Kendall's mom came in. Quietly, she slipped into a seat beside Katie and smiled, nodding along to the song. When they finished, she clapped loudly, laughing.

" _My_ mom always loved that kind of music. I grew up listening to all those funk and soul bands," she explained, expression nostalgic. 

"That's right," Katie said, snapping her game shut. "You grew up in Michigan." 

Mrs. Knight grinned and rubbed her hand along her daughter's shoulders. "Yeah," she replied. "Oh, don't mind me! Keep going, keep going! It sounds great, guys." 

The four of them beamed and ran through it again, smoothing the transition from "Rollercoaster of Love" to "September," navigating the tempo, key, and style change, running it over and over until it was just perfect. 

At one point, Logan's voice cracked, bringing all of them to a halt for a break, laughing at themselves. 

"Thank goodness we don't have a dance routine for this one," Logan said, taking a long drink of water. 

"Don't jinx it!" Carlos threw a towel at Logan's head. Logan caught it and snapped it at Carlos, who yelped and leaped away, Logan in hot pursuit. 

Kendall and James watched their antics impassively. "We'll probably have to learn some sort of difficult, choreographed routine now, won't we?" Kendall blew his bangs out of his eyes.

James nodded. "Yup." 

Their funk/soul medley didn't get quite the same number of views until they were mentioned on Rylan Marcrest's show. Suddenly, the views exploded. 

"Congratulations, guys," Kelly said, smirking. "You have a peripheral fanbase."

"A what now?" They chorused, identical confused expressions on their faces.

"Okay, you all really have to stop doing that. It's weirding me out." Kelly shuddered and shook her head. "Anyway, look. Your fans are mostly teenage girls, right?"

"Right!" They chimed, grinning and elbowing each other in the ribs.

"Well, what do all teenage girls have in common?"

"A taste for pink," Logan offered.

"A need to shop?" Kendall tried.

"Mood swings?" James shrugged.

"Self-esteem issues?" Carlos smiled nervously.

Kelly's expression turned incredulous. "What? I...maybe, but what I was looking for was mom."

The guys stared back at her blankly. 

"They have moms. Moms who go with them to the concerts? Who hear your music in the car? Who remember old songs and bands like Earth, Wind, and Fire?" 

"Oh," they chorused, realization dawning.

"So the moms are our periphery demographic," Logan finished.

"Exactly." Kelly grinned. 

**axiom**

"What song is this?"

James glanced at the sheet music. "The title's at the top of the page," he explained slowly. 

Carlos rolled his eyes. "Yes, I know that. But I've never even heard of this band." 

Kendall looked up. "Good thing I just found the song," he said, and turned the laptop around, raising the volume level until the bass and the drums were readily audible. The four of them listened, nodding along to the beat.

"I remember this song," Logan said. "It was in that one Dingo Channel original movie."

James snapped his fingers. "The one where they're, like, in the X-Games? And she pretends to be her brother?"

"Yes!" 

Kendall's mom wandered out into the living room. "Was one of you just playing The Juliana Theory?"

The four of them gaped at her.

"Yeah, Mom," Kendall said, recovering first. "Do you know them?"

"Of course. I took you to their concert when you were, what, seven?" She laughed. "Katie was barely along and I'd heard good things about them. So I packed you up, and Kev--" She bit her lip, took a breath. "We drove out to Pennsylvania and saw them play at a dive bar in Pittsburgh. They were rough, but good. I heard they got signed a few shows later." She smiled. "We put these bright orange ear plugs in your ears, and you were dancing like Kermit, all flailing arms and legs."

"Good to know that hasn't changed," Logan muttered, unable to hide a grin. Kendall smacked him in the stomach with the back of his hand. Carlos and James snickered behind their hands. 

"I remember the drive back,” she continued. “I sat in the back and you fell asleep with your head on my lap." Her gaze turned distant. "Your hair was so soft, I remember. I kept running my fingers through it." Her mouth quirked into a soft smile. "Your fa--Kevin always liked that, too." 

Kendall stood up and enveloped his mother in a hug, pulling her close. Katie joined in, Kendall making room for her. "It's okay, Mom," he said softly. She nodded into his shoulder, red hair hiding her face, her other arm reaching out to embrace her daughter.

The other three traded a look before quietly leaving the room. 

Later, the four of them recorded an acoustic cover of the song, the harmonies as tight as they could get them, and sharp claps to punctuate the cadence. Carlos brandished a tambourine to keep the beat. They put up the track as a free download on their site, and it nearly crashed the label's servers. 

**tangled**

They were in sweatpants and wifebeaters and collapsed on the floor of the dance studio, arms and legs splayed in every direction. James and Kendall had their damp hair pushed back out of their eyes, and Carlos had long discarded his helmet. All of them were sweaty and breathing hard, limbs like noodles, from the hours of dance practice.

"I hate you so much," Carlos declared, groaning. 

Kendall opened one eye. "I'm gonna regret this, but which one of us?"

"All of you," Carlos retorted. "But mostly Logan." 

Kendall waited for Logan to retort with his usual denouncement of blame, but nothing came. Kendall managed to sit up and give Logan a look.

Logan, for his part, heard Kendall move and shrugged, eyes closed, as he continued to lie flat on the ground. "No, he's right. This one's kind of on me." 

Kendall flopped back onto the wood floor. "You know what the worst part of this is? The dance doesn't repeat. At all."

"It does a bit at the end," James replied. "You know it's so that this looks really good on the video."

"Yeah." Kendall sighed. "It's just that this is probably the hardest routine we've ever had to learn. And it's not even for one of our songs." 

"But we don't have to sing during it," Carlos pointed out, rolling onto his stomach.

"I don't think I could sing during this," Logan grumbled. "I'm completely focused and still barely able to remember all the transitions." 

They were quiet for a long moment.

"It does look cool, though," James pointed out, a smug tone in his voice. 

"Yeah," the other three sighed. 

This video had been Kelly's idea -- and all-dance routine to Usher's "Caught Up," which was apparently her favorite song of all time. Gustavo had immediately called in Mr. X and told him what their plan was. Upon hearing their idea, Mr. X had promptly demanded "X triple my usual fee" and then put together a four-minute choreography routine that mixed the original video's moves with other sets. 

It was grueling, but the taping was tomorrow and they had each verse's moves down individually. They had been trying to get the continuity for the last three hours. 

"I'm probably never going to get the roll-step from the second verse into the bridge, you guys." Kendall thumped his head against the floor and fanned himself in vain hope of cooling faster. "It's never going to happen."

"What." James's voice was flat and uncomprehending. "You're Kendall. You never say stuff like that. You're Mr. Optimism."

"Mr. Pep Talk," Logan added with a groan.

"Mr. Raise Our Spirits," Carlos finished, drumming his fingers on the helmet perched on his stomach. 

"Yeah, well, I keep trying and flubbing it." Kendall managed to shrug against the floor. "I figured I'd warn you."

"Yeah, well, your warning backfired." With a grumble, James stood, then offered a hand to Kendall. "C'mon, get up. I'll help you out with the transition. But _you_ have to help me figure out how to not get hit in the face by Logan's jump in the final chorus."

"Hey!" Logan scrambled to his feet. "The last bit is freestyle. That's my style, man!" 

Kendall dusted himself off as he straightened. "Be stylish without kicking James in the face, Logan. Someone hit play, let's try this again."

Later, the video, which featured them in zoot suits and fedoras, doing the entire four-minute routine in one take, debuted. The next day, half the video was played on Backstage Access, and the video racked up 10 million views almost instantly.

"'Who said white boys can't dance?' Hey, she's talking about you, Kendall!" James scrolled through MyFaceTube comments, reading out ones that were particularly entertaining.

"DOGS!" Gustavo roared, walking out of his office. "Good job. You're reaching a whole new audience."

"Yeah, Usher's audience," Logan pointed out.

"Well, you next album was going to have more R&B style songs on it anyway, _right Gustavo?_ " Kelly elbowed him roughly in the side.

"RIGHT!" Gustavo shouted. "Uh, let me just go write some." He dashed off to the studio.

"Kelly?" Kendall shot her a flat look. "No more dance-only videos."

**no moss**

The next set of sheet music had Kendall on edge.

"I don't like this song," he said flatly. 

Katie peered over his shoulder, bracing herself on the back of the couch. "Oh," she said, voice quiet. Without saying another word, she moved around the couch and curled into Kendall's side, pulling the sheet music out of his hands and setting the sheaf face-down on the coffee table. 

A few days later, they were in the studio, warming up their voices for the recording. Kendall remained sullen and in a dark mood through the warmups, voice tight on the edges of his range. The others shot him a look -- Kendall's voice was usually large and wide and free, the top notes never strained from tension -- but they shrugged and gave Kendall his space, shooting him surreptitious looks from time to time as he listlessly shuffled through the music.

As they headed into the soundbooth, Kelly tapped Carlos on the shoulder. "Is Kendall okay?" she asked quietly. 

Carlos gazed back at her solemnly, the expression disconcerting only given who it was coming from. "It should be okay," he replied, voice quiet and serious. "If it isn't, well. We'll deal with it." He shot her a small smile and dashed into the booth, pulling the door shut behind him. 

"DOGS!" Gustavo shouted. "Today's session will be a little more...unorthodox. I'm trying something new. Work with me." The guys nodded obediently. Kendall jutted his chin out. 

"From the top!" Gustavo pressed a button and the instrumental began to play. 

Kendall's expression hardened and, on cue, he began to sing. "It was the third of September, that day I'll always remember."

"Yes he will," the other three crooned.

"'Cause that was the day that my daddy died." Kendall took a breath. "Never heard nothing but bad things about him. Mama, I'm depending on you, tell me the truth. And Mama just hung her head and said..."

The four voices sang the chorus in harmony. "Papa was a rollin' stone, wherever he laid his hat was his home."

"And when he died," Logan sang, falsetto pitch-perfect.

"All he left us was alone," Kendall finished, pulling back from the mic suddenly to let Carlos, then Logan and James, finish out the verses. His expression darkened with each repetition of the chorus, and the others shot him looks between verses.

When they finished the take, they looked expectantly at Gustavo. He pressed the button that let him speak into the soundbooth. "No good, do it again."

So they did. Take after take after take went by, with Kendall's expression not improving, the other guys getting nervous, and Kendall's voice getting darker and darker toned on his verse. 

"Still no good," Gustavo spoke into the mic. 

Kelly intervened. "Take a quick break, guys." Then, she spun Gustavo around in the chair and glared at him. "What are you doing? That's the fifteenth take you've said was no good. They sound great to me, what are you after." It wasn't even a question.

"The first verse still isn't right," Gustavo replied, glaring up at her. "I need him darker, raspy." 

"Raspy? This is Kendall. If you want that, use Carlos instead."

"No, it has to be Kendall." He shot her a look. "These songs are supposed to show off their range, Kelly. Kendall's always got that tone. I want him husky, angry, not himself."

"You're going to break him," Kelly said flatly.

"Good, he'll finally show some respect."

"No, you're going to _break him_ and we'll be out a lead singer." She pointed at him, making his eyes cross. "Don't screw this up." She checked her watch. "You only get them for another two hours."

He nodded, then spun around. "AGAIN!" he shouted into the soundbooth and hit the music. 

This time, he didn't wait until the end of the song to cut it. After the first chorus, he cut the music and called no good. And proceeded to do this repeatedly, sometimes stopping two lines in, sometimes letting them get through the chorus before cutting them off. Kendall's voice grew raspy, husky, and angry. 

The thirtieth time he NG'd them, this time after they had finally gotten through the entire song, Kendall had had enough. 

"No," he said fiercely, pulling off his headphones. "I'm done. It's been hours and we've barely made it past the first verse!" He stormed out of the soundbooth to stand before Gustavo, who was standing at this point. 

"Get back in the booth, dog!" Gustavo pointed, voice raised to its usual shattering decibels. 

Kelly took a large step back, anticipating an extended screaming match. No one, however, expected what transpired. 

"No! I will not!" Kendall shouted, crossing his arms across his chest. "In fact, I'm leaving!" Kendall yelled, storming out. "AND I HATE THAT SONG!" he hollered from down the hall. Several slammed doors later, the studio was silent. 

Gustavo's expression was gleeful. "Kelly," he said. "I think the last one was it." 

The other three stumbled out of the booth and stood before the two of them, clearly unhappy.

"Now you've done it," Carlos admonished, glaring at Gustavo.

"You _had_ to go Norman Whitfield on us, didn't you?" Logan groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose. 

James's expression was grim. "What is going on?"

"Now, Gustavo," the three of them chimed.

"I wanted to get that deep, husky tone for the opening verse, to set the mood."

"So you pushed him and made him angry," James finished. "Wonderful." 

"I don't see what the big deal here is," Gustavo said, shrugging. "It's just a song."

"Wrong," the three of them chimed. 

"Kendall hates this song," James started.

"Because it brings up bad memories," Logan continued.

Seeing that Gustavo didn't comprehend, Carlos sighed. "When is Kendall's birthday, Gustavo?" 

"November, so?"

"Kendall's dad walked out on them two months before his tenth birthday," Carlos said flatly, the room suddenly silent again.

"Oh," Gustavo said, clearly stunned.

Across town, Kendall pulled on skates and pads, jerking the ties until they were hopelessly knotted but secure. Pulling on a helmet, he hobbled to the ice and began to skate laps.

At first his pace was frantic, himself a maroon and yellow blur on the the rink. After a while, he slowed his pace, letting his momentum carry him until it ran out. He took deep, gasping breaths of cold ice air that stung like needles in his lungs and felt like reminders of exactly who he was. He closed his eyes, the rink as familiar to him as breathing, and skated laps blind around the ice, enjoying the feeling of cold air against his skin and in his chest.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw his mom at the boards. Unhesitatingly, he skated over to her and hugged her over the boards, pressing his face into her neck, enveloping her small frame inside his larger one.

"It's okay, honey," she murmured, hands rubbing his back and voice as soothing. "It's okay, it's okay." 

When he finally felt like he had some measure of control over himself, he pulled away and tore off his gloves, taking her hands in his own and squeezing them gently. "Thanks, Mom."

Later, after a quiet but relaxed dinner, the other three guys bullied Kendall into making a pillow fort out of the couch. After, they splayed out on the ground like they would during sleepovers in their childhoods. They were full, overstimulated from videogames, and utterly beat from a trying day. 

"You're okay?" It was Logan, voice calm and somewhat sleepy-sounding.

"Yeah," Kendall replied, shrugging awkwardly on the ground. He took a breath. "Did I ever tell you guys that it was my dad who taught me how to skate?"

"No, you never did," Carlos answered softly, helmet braced against his abdomen. 

"He pulled me away from the boards, showed me how to keep my balance." Kendall smiled at the memory. "I must have been five, maybe six, it was before Katie came, anyway." He shook his head. "I barely remember what he looked like, and....I don't really care. Is that weird?"

"Nope." James replied flatly.

"Not at all," Carlos concurred.

"Not even a little bit," Logan finished.

Kendall laughed. "Well, it's weird to me." He sighed. "I wanna ask my mom about him, but...."

"But you're worried it'll hurt her," finished a soft female voice. Kendall sat up and saw Katie standing there in her pajamas, rubbing her eyes sleepily. She padded over beside him and curled into his side. 

"Pretty much," he admitted. "She doesn't like talking about him."

"She'll have to, eventually," Logan pointed out. "It's not fair to you both."

"You deserve to know more about him," Carlos added. "He's your _dad_."

"You guys know what my most vivid memory of him is?" He didn't bother waiting for them to respond. "I was maybe seven, 'cause I remember you there, Katie, and I remember he was leaving us. I was crying, and I remember shouting, 'Why do you always have to _leave?_ ' And you know what he said? He said he had people _depending_ on him." Kendall's voice turned bitter. "I remember Katie started to wail, you were still a baby then, and I remember thinking how we depended on him too." He made a huffing kind of noise. "He really wasn't much of a dad."

"True," James said. "But you've got to be curious." 

"Yeah," Kendall admitted quietly. "I am. Mostly, I don't want to be anything like him." He paused. "Sorry about storming out today." 

"It's okay," Carlos said quickly. "We understand." 

"Gustavo owes you an apology," Logan declared.

"Probably," Kendall said, then sighed. "Sometimes I feel like I don't know who I am." 

James made a _tsk_ noise. "What does that mean? You're Kendall Knight. You're the most loyal, steadfast friend a person could have, and you're the reason we have this huge chance at all."

"You help make peoples' dreams come true," Carlos added simply.

"And you're the man with the plan." Logan flashed Kendall a grin.

"Stop it, you're making me blush," Kendall deadpanned, but the effect was ruined by his smile. He shook Katie slightly, who beamed up at him and wrapped her fingers around a pillowcase. 

"Pillow fight!" she cried, and launched herself at Carlos, pillow raised over her head.

Later, as they all drifted off, covered in feathers and exhausted, Kendall murmured, "Thanks, guys," into the darkness.

**always on my mind**

"Dogs!" Gustavo roared, a stack of paperclipped sheet music in his hands. "I have your new song!"

Logan held up a hand. "No more songs about our parents, okay?"

Gustavo shot him a sassy look. "Of course not. This one's a B-side from an English band. Not The Beatles," he said, cutting off Carlos's question before it started. "Different one. It's got some tough harmonies." 

"What happened to the track we were recording?" The others stopped to look at Kendall, who nonchalantly rocked back on his heels in his striped shirt and skinny jeans. 

Gustavo cleared his throat. "The last take was perfect. I have it ready to release, but I haven't yet. "

Kendall looked at his toes for a moment. "Put it up," he said. 

The other three guys shared a look. "You sure?" Logan's expression was mirrored by James and Carlos and Kelly.

Kendall shrugged. "Yeah, sure. If it's ready, let's do it." 

Kelly and Gustavo looked at one another. Then, Kelly turned back and smiled a little too brightly. "Okay, I'll send it to Griffin." 

"So what's this song?" Kendall snatched a packet out of Gustavo's hands. "'Fly to Me'? Sounds girly." 

"IT'S NOT GIRLY." Gustavo took a deep breath. "It's about a long love. Now go to the practice studio and learn the harmonies, please? In the meantime, I'll put the finishing touches on your album. It drops in like a month, after all, and I want to be sure the production is perfect."

"Shouldn't you have had that done like months ago?" Logan raised an eyebrow.

"SHUT UP AND PRACTICE!" At Gustavo's shout -- and the vein throbbing in his forehead -- the four of them raced out of his office and into the dance studio. 

The week after, Kelly booked them for an exclusive coffeeshop show. Unlike their usual performances, this was a small, intimate venue in a hip neighborhood. The place was sold out for the night, and the audience would number fifty people at most. Kelly had one of their studio guitarists work out the chords for the song, as well as a few of the others off their album. They performed a five-song acoustic set in front of a mixed audience. Fly to Me was the best they had ever performed it.

Kelly recorded the song and put it on their official page within a half hour, before most of the fans had uploaded theirs. There were endless Stumbld posts about it, with .gif sets and fanvids set to the song. It ended up a sleeper hit of sorts.

**everyday's the start**

They were sprawled all over the tour bus. Logan and James were in the booth that served as their dining table, Carlos was beside them laid out on the modular sofa, and Kendall was stretched out on his lower bunk. In the back of the bus, Kendall's mom was folding clothes and Katie was in the other corner of the sofa playing a videogame on silent. 

"Why do we have to go on tour again?" Carlos groaned.

"Because we're rock stars," Logan replied, head still tilted back.

"Right," Carlos said, then sighed.

Kendall sat up and planted his feet on the floor, hands on his knees. "Do you guys remember that one song that we were supposed to record but didn't?"

"The one we didn't have time to record because our third album dropped?" James's expression went from curious to congratulatory, his grin as wide as Kendall had ever seen it. 

"Yeah, that one." Kendall reached under the bunk and pulled out his guitar, strumming a few chords before finding the right one. "How did it go again?" 

The other three groaned. "Dude, we just finished a two-hour show," Carlos protested.

Kendall rolled his eyes. "Whatever, humor me, I like this song." 

Logan sighed. "Okay, fine, fine." He sat up, though Carlos remained lying down and James had one leg on the bench seat. 

Kendall strummed the opening, the descending notes poignant against the other chords. 

Logan took a deep breath. "Tasted, tasted love so sweet. and all of it was lost on me. Bought and sold like property, sugar on my tongue."

"Kept fallin' over," Carlos continued. "Kept lookin' backward. Went broke believin' that the simple should be hard." 

The four of them switched into two-part harmony, Kendall still strumming. "All we are, we are. All we are, we are. And every day's a start of somethin' beautiful." 

As Kendall strummed, Katie shut her video game and sat next to him. From the back, his mom came forward, leaning against one side of the narrow galley, her smile somewhat wistful as she listened to them sing. 

In two-part harmony, Logan and Carlos sang the next part together. "Wasted, wasted love for you. Tradin' out for something new. Well it's hard to change the way you lose if you think you've never won."

Kendall and James joined in. "'Cause all we are, we are. All we are, we are. And every day's a start of somethin' beautiful." 

James took a deep breath. "And in the end the words won't matter, no. 'Cause in the end, nothin' stays the same. And in the end, dreams just scatter and fall like rain." 

Kendall kept strumming. Jennifer pushed off the wall and walked forward, stopping by each of the guys across from Kendall and ruffling their hair. Logan grinned sheepishly in spite of himself, James ducked his head, embarrassed, and Carlos beamed up at her lovingly. She grinned at all of them before sidling over to Kendall and sitting beside him, laying an arm around his shoulders. Kendall leaned his head on her shoulder for a moment, before straightening up again. 

As he strummed through bar after bar, he took a breath and said, quietly enough for only his mother and Katie to hear. "Mom?"

She ruffled his hair slightly. "Yeah?"

"I think it's time we talked about Dad." 

Beside him, Katie nodded silently. 

The other three guys sang in three-part harmony, "Because all we are, we all. All we are, we are. And every day's the start of something beautiful, something real. All we are, we are." They repeated the chorus, while Jen looked back and forth at the solemn faces of her children. Ever so slightly, she nodded. Standing, she pulled them both with her to the back of the bus. Kendall stopped strumming and set the guitar on his bunk as he weaved through the narrow space.

Carlos, James, and Logan sat up when the music had suddenly cut out, and the three of them watched as the Knight family read a letter that Mrs. Knight pulled out of locked box she kept their passports and birth certificate copies in. They traded a nervous uncertain look for a moment.

"All we are, we are," Carlos sang softly, lying back on the sofa once more.

"All we are, we are," James and Logan echoed in harmony.

"And every day's the start," the three of them continued, leaning back into the gentle rocking of the bus. "Of something beautiful, beautiful."

There was a long silence, where the only sound was the hum of the bus as it rolled along the highway. 

"Do you think they're going to be okay?" Carlos's voice felt small somehow.

Logan smiled in spite of himself. "Yeah, of course. They're the Knight family."

In the back, Kendall, Katie, and their mother curled into a messy group hug.

**Author's Note:**

>   1. This fic was started (and largely completed!) before the guys _actually started doing any of this_ in real life with their UStream vids and stuff. After that, I just gave up and started using what they were already doing as inspiration for the sections.
>   2. If you're interested, the Usher choreography in my mind looks like this:  
>  \- First verse: http://youtu.be/T2brpnP-7EE  
>  \- First chorus: http://youtu.be/cFkZDhwqoHg (official vid) [:42s to 1:07]  
>  \- Second verse: http://youtu.be/8CYhhmvFgfs  
>  \- Second chorus: http://youtu.be/i2_wH1L05F4  
>  \- To end: http://youtu.be/cFkZDhwqoHg (official vid) [2:25]
>   3. Let me know if you don't know some of the songs, though there should be enough lyrics and hints to make clear what song was used where.
>   4. This originally wanted to be a story about Kendall's daddy issues. It ended up being a fic about how adorable the Knight family is. Oh well?
>   5. This was written over the course of the last _year_ , so forgive some of the uncanon.
> 



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